About 70 percent of N.J. school budgets were approved, in line with year before

New Jersey voters passed some 72.7 percent of school budgets Tuesday night in school board elections, despite the dismal economy.

School officials had been fearing the worst, but modest budget increases, coupled with state aid and local efforts to bring out voters, may have helped budgets pass.

Ed Murray/The Star-LedgerVoting worker Maria Shoolis had a brief moment of rest before the lunch rush. Voting on Tuesday at the Crim School in Bridgewater for the School Board and school funding in the Bridgewater-Raritan school district.

"In this economy it is a very good sign that we have had such a large number of approvals," said Frank Belluscio, a spokesman for the New Jersey School Boards Association. "We thought there would be a much more significant drop-off."

Voter turnout may have also been stronger in some places. Voter turnout for school elections typically hovers around 15 percent -- last year, it was 14.3 -- but rough calculations showed some places, such as Hunterdon County, may have had as much as 20 percent turnout, Belluscio said.

School Boards Association President Harry Delgado said local school boards were "very sensitive to the financial struggles facing their constituents" this year.

"Their concern was reflected in budget proposals that, in the vast majority of cases, contained modest tax increases and were under the state's 4-percent tax cap," he said.

Fifteen of 19 school construction bond referenda also passed, according to the association, along with three of eleven budget 'second questions."

In many districts, educators breathed a sigh of relief Tuesday.

The Fair Haven School District has not failed a budget in years, but "in light of the economy right now, I think all districts were a little bit more worried," Superintendent Kathleen Cronin said. The district's budget passed with about 72 percent of the vote.

"It means we can continue next year basically with the same programs, without having to do any cutting," she said.

Districts with defeated school budgets now must to go their municipal governing bodies for review to consider possible cuts.